Due to my not having MS Office and highly disliking MS Works, I downloaded Open Office a while ago and use that for all my word processing and have never had a problem with it. However I have today discovered that as useful as it is, it does not like Word Counts. And how is a NaNo writer supposed to cope with something that doesn't like Word Counts? I mean of course the words could be copied into another word processor, or an online word counter, but where's the practicality?
I direct you to the following print screen:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/solitarysecrets/OO.jpg
See how it claims there is only 265 words in the Whole Document. Yet the highlighted section (Which happens to be the whole document) it 770 words in length. How am I supposed to trust it? I think I'll be swopping to MS Works for the duration of NaNo.
So this is a warning to all Open Office users. Do Not Trust it's Word Counter. It is not NaNo Friendly software.
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.Suzanne.
NaNoWriMo2007: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
14,476 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 09 27
Have you tried RoughDraft? (www.salsbury.f2s.com/rd.htm) It's free and has a great word counter.
62,108 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 10 02
Oh I like! Especially like the tabbed documents option. That's brilliant :) Thanks for telling me about it.
50,099 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 10 19
I was getting annoyed with my writing program too. I've been using WordPad because I don't have anything else. It's alright and everything, but it doesn't have a Word Counter full stop. I've downloaded RoughDraft too. You're right, it is pretty convenient. And best of all, I've just found out that I'm done with today's target. Yay. xDD
6,422 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 10 30
See how it claims there is only 265 words in the Whole Document. Yet the highlighted section (Which happens to be the whole document) it 770 words in length. How am I supposed to trust it? I think I'll be swopping to MS Works for the duration of NaNo.
So this is a warning to all Open Office users. Do Not Trust it's Word Counter. It is not NaNo Friendly software.
Not so fast with your condemnations there.
You have to understand something very basic. Until you have SAVED your work, it is not in the document. It's only in the buffer. The word count for the Whole Document is what is SAVED. Until it's saved, it's not a part of the document - it's only in the buffer.
THAT is why you got the apparent discrepancy between word counts. Open Office is 100% accurate, but it relies on the USER to remember that the text you typed is not a permanent part of the document until you save it. And it only counts the words that are a permanent part of your document -- the words that will still be there if your computer lets out the magic blue smoke while you're typing, and you have to move your hard drive to a new computer.
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wordcount widgets
770 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 11 04
That's not true. I've just created a new document and the word count totals are correct without having to save it. I'm using OO Writer 2.2 on WinXP. In any case, if you examine the screen capture the original poster included, you'll see that the "Save Document" icon is grayed out, indicating that the document has no unsaved changes.
I would encourage the original poster to open a defect with Open Office project. Their defect tracking system is here
62,108 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 11 17
You have to understand something very basic. Until you have SAVED your work, it is not in the document. It's only in the buffer. The word count for the Whole Document is what is SAVED. Until it's saved, it's not a part of the document - it's only in the buffer.
Thank you bentbriar for pointing out that yes, my work was fully saved when I took a print screen of the incorrect word count. So it's a fault with Open Office and not with my intelligence.
bentbriar: I've looked at their defect queries and it appears the problem has been logged several times already so I suppose it's more of a case of them finding a way of fixing it. Thanks for the link though.
However I'm quite happy with Rough Draft for the moment as it doesn't take anywhere near as much memory space to run the programme. I just thought I'd warn people that OO doesn't always work properly if you're after a trustworthy word counter.
6,422 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 12 12
That's not true. I've just created a new document and the word count totals are correct without having to save it. I'm using OO Writer 2.2 on WinXP. In any case, if you examine the screen capture the original poster included, you'll see that the "Save Document" icon is grayed out, indicating that the document has no unsaved changes.
I would encourage the original poster to open a defect with Open Office project. Their defect tracking system is here
How very, very odd. I wonder if it's a fault related to particular installations, or particular builds?
I just attempted to duplicate the problem on my own systems, and couldn't. As usual, as long as the text is in the buffer, it doesn't show up in the word count on my machine, but as soon as it's been saved, it comes up with the correct count. I'm using OO 2.3 on my XP box and NeoOffice 2.2.2 on my Mac, and I get the correct count on both versions.
I've always had to rely on saving the document first, to get the correct document word count, but when I do, it always comes out accurately.
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wordcount widgets
50,035 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 17 38
Yeah, my Open Office was only a word off, and it gave me an extra word, from the other word processor I use. *shrug*
Cheers,
Syka
50,406 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 18 32
I was a bit alarmed to read this...like the OP I'm using Open Office and Windows XP. I had never thought there might be a discrepancy.
Thanks to whoever mentioned RoughDraft - I downloaded it and so far, it agrees with Open Office. 2109 words so far. I'll keep double checking my count.
0 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 05 29
I've been using Open Office ever since I accidentally deleted my MSW a couple of years back. I've never relied too heavily on it's word count - mostly because I only truly need to use a word counter when I write drabbles and then I need it to be exact - but there must really be something wrong if it's such a big difference. Insane.
Best of luck with finding another, better, word counter.
58,009 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 06 44
Liquid Story Binder XE. I wouldn't recommend it right now because it's pretty involved and Nano has started, but just ONE of the many features, I can pull up my daily progress and I get a day by day word count totals, plus more. I can set my word count goal for a set time frame (i.e. Nano), and see how I'm doing, and how many words are left.
Liquid Story Binder XE
50,334 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 08 07
Weird- I just installed RoughDraft (cheers for the tip, btw- looks like a nice program) on the off-chance, and my word count on that's identical to the Open Office one.
Maybe it's something to do with tags, you know, like bold and italics and stuff- I haven't used any yet, but maybe the counters treat these differently?